Internet Financial Reporting and Company Characteristics: a Case of Quoted Companies in Nigeria

Abstract

This study was conducted to analyze the ability of Nigerian listed companies to communicate financial information via the internet. The result shows that 80.8% of listed companies in Nigeria have websites while 19.2% did not have websites or their websites was not accessible. The financial sector has the highest number of companies (55) with official websites while the manufacturing sector has the highest number of companies (14) without official websites. The result of the regression analysis shows that company size (log of total assets) and industrial sector have significant association with internet financial reporting (IFR) index. However, profitability, auditor type and company age were not found to be significant explanatory variables for IFR index.

Key words: Internet Financial Reporting, Company Characteristics, Nigerian Listed Companies